David Bohm, Compassion, and Understanding

By Jim Belderis

Imagine a child whose ambition is to show that all the laws of
the universe have the same source and that all things are interconnected,
including the nature of mind. Moreover, this child has a special
talent for solving complex problems: he sees himself as a microcosmic
reflection of the universe as a whole, and by studying his own
thoughts and feelings he comes to a deeper understanding of the
workings of nature. This is how David Bohm was described as a
young teenager, and it helps explain how he was able to make such
significant contributions to physics, philosophy, psychology,
and the study of consciousness.

But there was another side to the scientist which could be seen
as the driving force in his life. It was his deep concern for
the plight of humanity: the fragmentation of heart and mind that
leads to hatred, cynicism, irrationality, and war. From an early
age his aspiration was to give people a holistic understanding
of life. Once this fundamental holism was really understood, human
nature would change, and people would act according to the welfare
of the whole.

This extraordinary aspiration is especially intriguing. It sustained
a lifetime of profound inquiry, and gave expression to an unusual
form of compassion which often appeared to have a cosmic scope.
What would it lead him to understand? How far-reaching are the
implications, and what do they mean for society at large?

To begin with, remarkable things happened when Bohm's compassion
turned to the processes of nature. There were times when he felt
he was actually sharing the experience of natural phenomena. He
saw the workings of the universe as living beings. Whatever aspect
of nature he deeply studied, no matter how large or small, he
could somehow share its life as an integral part of the whole.
So every entity was part of a larger whole, and each was a manifestation
of the entire universe.

The implications of such a vision are staggering. It means the
universe has infinite levels while still acting like one indivisible
unit, that higher levels determine the nature of what exists at
lower levels, and that everything is intimately interconnected
as an organic whole. What happens in one locality affects what
is happening on that entire level, and sets up infinitely complex
chains of causation above and below -- so complex and imperceptible
that nature can often have the appearance of chaos. But regardless
of what we perceive, there is always a deeper order.

This kind of understanding eventually led to Bohm's theory of
the "implicate order." Whatever order we perceive is
only on the surface of reality, the explicate order. Mechanical
causes and effects, the appearance of distance and separation,
and even the nature of time and space -- are all enfolded in the
implicate order of a cosmic holomovement, the flowing processes
and transformations of an organic whole. This holomovement is
infinite in its potential and gives rise to everything within
and beyond our understanding, including consciousness and human
observers themselves.

To illustrate the nature of the implicate order, Bohm compared
it to the process of a holograph. Every fragment of a holographic
plate, regardless of its size, contains "enfolded" information
about the entire image. When these fragments are illuminated,
every one can reproduce the total picture. Ultimately, a single
point on the plate could still produce the complete illusion of
three-dimensional depth, distance, and separation -- whereas the
real information would be enfolded all together in every point
of the plate.

As complicated as this seems, Bohm saw it as only a "shadow"
of what the implicate order meant to him. His realizations give
intimations of an infinite hierarchy of ever deeper implicate
and superimplicate orders, each one enfolded in the level that
underlies it. And these flow endlessly into the unknowable ground
of being.

One of the main virtues of Bohm's all-embracing vision of life
is that it can free us from the old restrictive paradigms of science,
so that the possibilities for creative innovation are endless.
His ideas have opened new avenues of thought in a multitude of
disciplines, and have made it possible for a great many to gain
insight into new fields of study. But most importantly, Bohm's
vision has a great potential to change the way people think and
act. It transfers the focus of our attention away from limitations
and separation, and directs our minds toward the infinite potential
of interconnectedness and wholeness.

If we consider what David Bohm aspired to as a child and compare
it to how much he succeeded in doing, it is truly a remarkable
achievement. But what about our own aspirations? Of all the things
we may want to accomplish, what would be our deepest desire? Are
we not driven by the same urge to understand who we are and what
life is all about? When faced with complex problems of any nature,
do we not reflect them within our own thoughts and feelings? And
in the depths of both heart and mind, are we not concerned about
the plight of humanity?

Suppose we recognized our intimate connection with the whole of
life. How precious it would be to see the workings of nature come
alive. To feel the universe within us. To know that our thoughts
and actions are important in affecting our surroundings. Imagine
being able to access the level of consciousness that underlies
all our thinking, and realizing that there is always a deeper
order to the mind -- an infinite potential in which the entire
universe is enfolded. Could each of us be like that single holographic
point, capable of reproducing the entire cosmos within our being?